The Power of a Public Statement

Yesterday my wife had scheduled gall bladder surgery.  So, we got up really early, 5:30AM, and headed to the hospital.  By 8:00AM she was in the OR and we were on our way home by 11:15AM.  Since we did not know how she was going to respond to the pain meds and such, I took the rest of the day off to be at home and try my best to take care of her.  While she rested and slept off some of the meds I did some catch-up reading for my lectures and then spent sometime surfing the sites I most commonly visit.

One of these sites is a message board of Church of God folks who enjoy banter about our tradition.  Many on this board think they can change the world one post at a time, and many like me just read for comic relief.

With all that said, there are specific posters on this site that I always read, and last night I was scrolling down the page and read this title from one of my regular reads, “Emmy Award Winner Produced this Video of our Baptism.”  So I clicked the link.

As the video began to play I saw several people standing in a lake or sound making the public profession of their faith in Jesus Christ through the act of baptism.  It was a celebration of a choice to surrender their lives to the creator through Jesus by the Holy Spirit.  As these people were submerged into the water and then brought out by the pastor, the joy was undeniable.  It was as if a shroud had been removed from them as they came out of the water.

As I watched, tears began to fill my eyes.  Most of you who know me know that I am not an overly emotional person.  My wife glanced over at me and saw that I had been moved by whatever it was I was watching, so she tuned in as well.  As the video came to an end, she looked at me and commented, “It has been a long time since we have seen someone get baptized!”  It has been over four years.

At this moment sadness filled my heart.  In my tradition, baptism marks going public with your faith in Christ, and it gives the body of Christ a chance to celebrate the convert’s new found life and identity in Christ and as a member of the body.  This seemingly lack of baptisms raises two questions that are tough for me to articulate because I feel that I am part of the problem.

The first question that comes to mind is, “Does this lack of baptisms mean that we (my tradition) do not hold baptism important any longer?”  We often hear analysis state that actions follow beliefs.  ”The out flow of one’s heart is found in how one behaves,”  is a biblical principle.  Has my tradition lost the effectiveness of celebrating and symbolizing the old life buried and rising into the new life with Christ so the whole world will know so we , as the body of Christ, can celebrate this resurrection life with the new members of the body?

I hope this is not the case.  I hope that baptism has not become too difficult to pull off, or that we just do not do it because it takes too much time to do in a service and we do not want to take away  time from the music or preaching portion of our services.  If baptism has diminished because of logistic reasons, I pray for a recovery of an important element of being part of the body of Christ.  I would also say that pushing baptisms off into a “private ceremony” is equally as dangerous.  Baptism is meant to be a public profession of faith for the candidate and a time for the body of Christ to confirm, celebrate, and hold one another accountable in love.

The second, much more pointed question my observations brings to my mind is, “Are we leading people to Christ?”  Is the decrease in public professions through the act of baptism a result of people like me not building relationships with unbelievers and leading them to Christ?

As I sit on my couch this morning reflecting on what I experienced last night in a three-minute video, I am convicted.  You see, while I have seen over 1000 people accept Christ as Savior through my pulpit ministry over the past four years, I am not sure I could look you in the eye and say I have built a relationship with an unbeliever in the past four years and lead them to Jesus.  All the while, in almost all of my classes training the future of the evangelical church leadership, I have preached a message of relational evangelism.  I have stated on so many occasions, “I believe that more people will come to Christ over a cup of Starbucks in the future, than stumbling into a church to hear some guy scream at them for an hour.”  However, when the day is done, I am not sure my behavior is following my beliefs.

Click on the link above.  Take three minutes and maybe you will be inspired, convicted, or just blessed.  As I watched that video last night, I once again felt part of the body of Christ as I celebrated with those I do not know in person their public profession.  I hope to celebrate with them in person sometime in eternity.

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